FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: John Bloedorn or Kathryn DeMarco, 286-4837 or john@cravenallengallery.com 300 dpi press-quality photographs can be downloaded from http://cravenallengallery.com/press
STEVE McCLURE: NEW PAINTINGS and KATHLEEN RYALL: NEW PORCELAIN May 9 – July 2
The exhibition “Steve McClure: New Paintings and Kathleen Ryall: New Porcelain” opens May 9 at Craven Allen Gallery with a reception from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Steve McClure returns to Durham with an exciting new body of work developed during two successive fellowships at the prestigious Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Paintings in oil on linen or ink on paper feature enigmatic settings populated with subjects as diverse as state fair cowboys, working women from the 1940s, or mythological figures. He is particularly interested in exploring the tension between the immediacy of narrative and the timelessness of landscape.
Pottery is in Kathleen Ryall’s blood; she comes from a line of ceramic artisans in her native Staffordshire, England. Now living in Oxford, North Carolina, Ryall uses her considerable technical expertise to push the boundaries of contemporary design, prizing purity of form for her elegant, modern vessels. Contrasting colors and unexpected asymmetries give her work a sense of freshness and surprise, while her subtle surface textures and supple shapes beg for tactile exploration.
The show continues through July 2. Craven Allen Gallery is located at 1106 ½ Broad Street in Durham. Gallery hours are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday. For more information, please call the gallery at 286-4837 or visit www.cravenallengallery.com.
STEVE McCLURE New Paintings—Artist’s Statment
My paintings and works on paper combine precise narrative details with an atmospheric space that dissolves these details, manipulating the sense of foreground and background, matter and the void. In his book The Decline of the West, Oswald Spengler makes a distinction between landscape and narrative in paintings. He suggests that landscape embodies the idea of endless time and that narrative is concerned with the immediate present. My recent work directly uses this idea to depict how narrative and landscape work against each other in a painting. The large painting, Lady Sawyers, is based on a black and white flash photo taken by John Collier for the Farm Security Administration in 1943. In the photograph, a group of women are caught in a small point in time and place, without past or future; in my painting they are allowed to become disintegrated, as in an ancient frieze, and have the freedom to live in a tragic space of History.
About Steve McClure
Steve McClure’s paintings, prints and works on paper have appeared in numerous group shows throughout the south and northeast, including New Prints at the International Print Center in New York City and Art on Paper at the Weatherspoon Museum in Greensboro. Recent solo exhibitions include My Bust Book at Bleu Acier in Tampa. He recently completed two winter Fellowships at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and is the recipient of residencies from the Lower East Side Printshop, and the Bronx Museum of Arts.
Mr. McClure graduated from the University of South Florida with a Bachelor’s degree in 1995. In Tampa he opened (with Eric Breit) the Willie Shaker Gallery, a traveling exhibition space. While living in North Carolina (1996- 2004), he produced the experimental noise show CMP (1998-2001) on WXDU and reopened the Willie Shaker Gallery. He has an abiding interest in the works of Goethe and the visual history of whales.
KATHLEEN RYALL New Porcelain—Artist’s Statement
In the eighteenth century, the European and English potters developed new materials and techniques which transformed the making of ceramics in the West. As an industrially trained designer, I now combine the technical versatility of those industrial processes with the individuality of the artist. By continuing to push the boundaries of this technology, I hope to produce work that is both innovative and distinctive. Essentially, at the heart of my work lies a purity of form, contrasting colours and subtle surface finishes. I strive to produce work which is uncompromising in both quality and elegance.
Methods and Materials
Well before I make any piece, I have to consider its production feasibility. Design in the form of drawing and accurate modeling is essential. I employ a variety of techniques in which to achieve the individuality of each piece, from painting designs of coloured slip, sculpting the tops of cast work, to casting layers of colour in sweeping lines and curves. All the work I make is vitrified, this achieves a distinctive porcelain translucency and impervious satin finish.
About Kathleen Ryall
I was born in Burslem, Staffordshire, England (the Potteries); where many of my family were potters and ceramic manufacturers. I gained a B.A in art and design at the University of Cardiff, Wales. After working as an exhibition and display designer and later as an interior designer in London, I moved back to Staffordshire, where I gained a M.A. in ceramics from Staffordshire University. I then worked for several years as an industrial designer and modeler, prior to moving to the U.S.A. in 1990. In 1997 I established my own studio in Oxford, North Carolina.
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